Matthew arrived into the world ahead of schedule, rather surprising his parents Rita and Seth. He grew up in Florida without any siblings until the arrival of Koko his freshman year of high school.

He graduated high school and went on to Emory University in Atlanta. He majored in Physics, increasing his geek index substantially. Before graduating, he realized that an undergraduate degree in physics was unlikely to land a job which would pay the bills, so he applied to Graduate School. Opting to stay in Atlanta, he then attended Georgia Tech to get a masters in engineering.

The time he spent in Atlanta drastically changed his driving techniques. Having grown up in Florida, he was constantly having to drive slowly to avoid the alter kakers, but Atlanta drivers believe that any more than 6 inches between you and the car in front of you would allow some moron to pull in front of you. Since arriving in California, he has increased that distance to at least 12 inches on most occasions.

Matthew arrived in California in the summer of 1999, having been recruited by HP. Turns out that we partied together like it was 1999 for the turn of the millennium since we were both invited to the same New Year’s Eve Party, though we do not remember each other. Meanwhile, HP spun off his division which became Agilent Technologies. Agilent laid him off during the Dot Com Bust. He quickly got another job at his current company, Nvidia, and used the remainder of his severance time and pay to travel to Italy.

Even though having a job put a dent in the amount of time he has to travel, he generally saves up his vacation days to do at least one large trip which requires a passport every year (in addition to flying out to Florida twice a year to see his parents). In his travels before we started dating, he visited Italy, Ireland, and London among other places.

As I mentioned, Matthew and I were both at the same New Year’s Eve party on December 31, 1999. Turns out, he knew one roommate, Mitchell while I knew the other, Micah. Over the years, both of these friends and several of our other common friends kept introducing us.

From here the courship began…